Wing Commander Saga team and MindCrusher Studios are proud to announce the exciting release of our first German audio book, which is loosely based on the first chapter of the Wing Commander Saga Prologue fiction.

This MCS production is read by Marco Ansing, Alessandro Alioto, Sara Kelly-Husain, Jan Boysen, Ralf "Searge" Pappers, Tabitha Hammer and Sven Matthias. These actors will also be the voice acting power behind the upcoming German version of the Wing Commander Saga Prologue. A musical score by Edward Bradshaw, Tim Janssenss and Dennis Schuster adds atmosphere to this lavish production. A great deal of care and time has been spent creating an audio book which elaborates upon the story of Wing Commander Saga. Get the MP3 file here and enjoy the story.... if you can understand German, that is.

For this week's update, we would like to share a sneak peek into the visual style of the art that will be featured in the Wing Commander Saga manual. These blueprints were prepared by our junior member Flanker and are designed to have a crisp, clean, technical appearance, much as you would expect to find in a Jane's manual, while also having a slight hint of World War 2 artwork in homage to the historical time period upon which Wing Commander is based. Check out the sketches below!

Here's our latest all-important shameless plug. You can now follow Saga on Twitter at http://twitter.com/admiraltolwyn. We are using our feed to provide quick updates on the work Saga's team is doing. Our tweets will highlight official announcements and will pointing out items of particular relevance to the project's progress.

At any rate, tweet us if you have anything important to say. Even if you don't, please tweet us, we need love. ;) If you have any questions, just add a comment below.

Ever since the Wing Commander Saga project has been announced, there was a certain Kilrathi warship that a lot of Wing Commander fans have been literally waiting years to see. And now, that wait is over. Today, we are proud to show our version of the Kilrathi’s infamous dreadnought – the H’varkann-class.

Several of these vessels were seen in various Wing Commander 3 cutscenes. One of them, KIS H’varkann, served as Prince Thrakhath’s flagship. Another ship of the class, the KIS Vorgath, made an appearance in the False Colors novel.

Efforts have been conducted to great lengths to make the ship large enough to live up to the size described in various game sources, but small enough in a way that is most efficient to the game design, gameplay, graphics requirements, and frame rate.

The massive and intimidating H’varkann-class dreadnought is the largest and deadliest warship in the Kilrathi fleet. Its array of heavy beam cannons and missile batteries can lay waste to entire enemy fleets, and its fighter complement is equal to that of several heavy carriers. In addition, its super heavy shielding and armor makes this battlewagon virtually invulnerable to any attack. It is no surprise that dreadnoughts are used as flagships for Kilrathi sector fleet admirals as well as Prince Thrakhath himself.

In an attempt to represent the scale and drama of the Terran Kilrathi conflict, Wing Commander Saga will feature a huge cast of characters.

For the sheer number of pilots you will interact with when you play Saga, we need to have at least 50 generic pilots, each of which will have a unique voice and personalized lines. We want these lines to be varied and individual, so we have decided to open up a way for us to tap into your many talents to help us create this part of Saga.

Each generic pilot has a set of lines they need to speak. The general theme of each line can be found here. We would invite all of you who wish to write up lines that fit each of these categories. You can submit as many sets of these generic lines as you can.

Feel free to write variations on the theme and to be creative, so long as you do not stray so far from the theme that it becomes confusing.

If we end up using your lines, you will be included in the credits for Wing Commander Saga. So, let the creative juices roll and send us your submissions!

Part of our development work lately has focused on code changes that will allow us to offer new and improved feature. For this poll, we would like to know which new feature you are looking forward to the most.

In a sensational move, guys from Firebrand Radio have somehow managed to secure exclusive access for a lengthy chinwag with our very own Keldor, to chat about all things regarding Wing Commander Saga. An mp3 of the interview is available for free on the FB Radio website! The full version of the chitchat should be ready in a couple of weeks, so stay tuned!

As for our esteemed leader (in other words 'me'), he was sadly unavailable for the interview, as he was holed up at Saga HQ, rumoured to be coming up with proof as to why Michael Schumacher deserves a drive in 2010.

This week, the Saga team will like to show off another lost concept art that was found in the official "Making of Wing Commander 3" CD-ROM.

For simplicity's sake, we intend this to be the same class of Kilrathi light carriers mentioned in the Victory Streak manual and the escort carriers mentioned in the False Colors novel. Due to the fact that there is no official class name, the Saga team has decided (for the time being) to call it the Dubav-class (a reference after one of the carriers in the False Colors novel).

This Kilrathi light carrier is specifically designed to operate behind enemy lines for prolonged periods of time. This fast, sleek, self-sufficient escort carrier is equipped with a half wing of fighters and bombers to attack Terran convoys and a loadout of Marine shuttles and bombardment missiles to mount terror raids against Confederation homeworlds and colonies. Notoriously elusive, Dubav-class carriers form the core of many Kilrathi Recon-in-Force fleets, and are normally encountered away from the main front.

Welcome to the latest news update. This week, we're taking a look at game design methodology.

On the game design front, we're adhering to the philosophical ideals we established in Prologue - if it isn't fun, it's getting cut. This sounds like a pretty obvious methodology, but trust me, as we learned in Prologue, it's not as cut and dried as it seems. A lot of features get momentum behind them, and the more momentum they get, the harder it becomes to cut them. In the end, though, you have to do what's best for the game, even if it means cutting out your favorite feature which is always painful to do.

Still, I love this time of the project. We're making steady progress, but we're still exploring ideas. Best of all, we're still incredibly flexible, which is going to be critical in the next couple of months as we start getting feedback from our testers. Honestly, that's one of the things I'm most excited about. We want to make the game you all want to play; after all, we're making it for you.

For today's update we would like to showcase our final version of the Kilrathi Bhantkara-class heavy carrier. These mainstay fleet carriers are the backbone of the Kilrathi Navy. Massive and heavily armored, these carriers utilize its full wing of fighters, bombers, and support craft to the utmost against the Confederation Navy. Any major attack, fleet action, or campaign will most likely be launched from one of these carriers. Even though it only has mediocre shielding and armament, these carriers are almost always seen in large battlegroups with four to six supporting capital ships. In addition, these carriers outnumber their Terran counterparts by a wide margin.